A chartered-plane full of uninvited Gazan refugees arrived in South Africa recently. This is an event that really happened.
As far as I can piece together, Israeli authorities allowed 153 Gaza residents to enter Isreal, travel to a nearby airport, board a chartered jetliner and fly to Johannesburg, via Nairobi.
There they sat on the tarmac for 10 hours until local South African authorities could figure out what to do. From BBC News,
South Africa has maintained strong support for the Palestinian cause throughout the war between Hamas and Israel in Gaza.
And now South Africa gets the opportunity to prove up their support with real action.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says there will be an investigation into the “mysterious” arrival of a chartered plane carrying 153 Palestinians from Gaza into the country.
Quoting the president,
In response, the president said “we cannot turn them back”, according to News24.
“Even though they do not have the necessary documents and papers, these are people from a strife-torn, a war-torn country.”
Well, they’re yours now. No takebacks. A local charity agreed to look after them as a condition of disembarking.
The war in Gaza is the first humanitarian crisis that I can recall where not a single country on earth has agreed to accept a single refugee from the area.
Why is that?
